Postbox Courier: The New Way To Send Post From Australia To South Africa

If you’ve ever had to send something to South Africa, whether it was a present for a family member or some important documents or even just a card, I’m sure one question has gone through your mind each time: “Will it arrive?”

Never mind about worrying if it will arrive in one piece, or on time – the main concern is usually if it will arrive at all!

Unfortunately the South African Postal Service is not what it used to be. Even when we lived in South Africa you rarely posted birthday cards as you were always concerned that they’d ‘go missing’ – i.e. the postman might think there was money in the card and take it for himself (or herself!).

I recently discovered that there is a new way to get your post and parcels delivered safely to South Africa from Australia. Not only safely, but in just a matter of days too!

Postbox Courier – The New Way To Send Post To South Africa

Postbox Courier offer specialised courier services from across the world to South Africa. It’s the perfect way to send a parcel from Australia back to friends and family in South Africa. They’ve been operating since 2012, starting off in the UK and have more recently branched out to other countries including the USA, Hong Kong and now Australia.

Their mission is to provide a personal, consistent and cost effective delivery system, opposing the conventional and costly courier alternative, as well as the erratic and second-rate postal service we so often experience once the package arrives in South Africa.

How Does Postbox Courier Work?

The way it works is simple. You put together your parcel to send to your family. Be mindful of Australian and international post regulations and don’t include anything you wouldn’t normally be able to post.

You then sign up to Postbox Courier online and get allocated your own personal post box addresses – one for when you want to send something to South Africa, and one for when you want to send something from South Africa to Australia (e.g. if you want to shop online in SA and have the goods delivered to Australia – very handy for all that Woolies shopping!).

For those in Australia, the post box address is in Sydney. You then post the parcel to your personal post box address in Sydney, ready to send on to your chosen address in South Africa.

Once your parcel has been sent, you need to set up a parcel pre-alert to let them know your parcel is on its way. You give them the details of the parcel, what’s in it, how big it is, what it weighs, along with the address you want it delivered to in South Africa.

I was given a trial of their service and sent a parcel weighing 1.55kg to my family in KZN. I posted it from Perth to my Sydney post box address, which cost me $13 using a pre-paid satchel (which is valid for up to 3kgs). I posted it late on Friday 30 June.

My parcel was full of Australian treats and goodies, including Tim Tams, Caramello Koalas, slabs of chocolate, liquorice (my Dad loves liquorice!), Australian themed Christmas decorations, postcards from our Australian travels and hand written letters (you can’t beat a good hand written letter these days).

How Long Does It Take?

I then sent my parcel pre alert to Post Box Courier online. The parcel took 4 days to arrive in Sydney and I was informed via email that it arrived on Thursday 6 July. I was then invited to pay for my parcel, and once it was paid, it would be sent on to my specified address in South Africa.

As I had a voucher to trial the service, I popped in my voucher code instead and voila, the package was on its way to South Africa. It would have cost around $60 if I had paid for it – way cheaper than a courier (I got a quote from DHL for the same parcel going the same route and it came out at $158 for their drop off service!).

Less than a week later, on Wednesday 12 July, I got a text from my family to say thanks for the parcel!

I was more than happy; the parcel had taken just 4 working days to arrive at its destination. My family said they were very impressed with the state of the parcel, it was completely intact and it seemed to have travelled well. They were so excited to get all the Aussie goodies too and had a ball trying all the different Tim Tam and chocolate flavours.

Competition Time!

If you’d love to win a free trial of Postbox Courier’s service, then keep reading!

Thanks to Postbox Courier, I’ve got not 1, not 2, but 3 vouchers to give away to 3 lucky readers.

You can win a voucher to send a parcel of up to 2kg from Australia to your friends or family back in South Africa.

Simply comment below and let me know who you’d love to send a parcel to in South Africa and if you don’t mind sharing, what you would send them from Australia! You can also enter via my Facebook page.

Entries close on Sunday 13 August at 11pm and winners will be notified in the following week.

The prize will entitle the winners up to a 2 kg Postbox Courier shipping voucher from Australia to South Africa or visa-versa. The winners would need to let Postbox Courier know, once they have registered, as to which service they require.

The shopping voucher excludes any customs excise duties that may be incurred for high value shipments, and if you are concerned with this, please make contact with the Postbox Courier customer services prior to purchasing or sending items. It is also advisable to check the FAQs on the Postbox Courier websiteto determine whether there are any restrictions on what type of products can be shipped.

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Disclosure: I received a free trial voucher to experience the service from Postbox Courier and I was financially compensated for this post. All opinions however are my own.

28 Comments

I would love to send a parcel to my mom and dad (or in my daughter’s case, ouma & oupa). We would include the many (many!) drawings she has made for them but could never post we we didn’t want it to “go missing”. A packet or two of Tims Tams would be included too – you can’t send a parcel to SA without Tim Tams ? And finally, we would blow many, many kisses into the envelope.

I am getting married in South Africa in December and would love to be able to send and receive some stuff to and from SA for the wedding! Colour samples/fabric swatches/bridal magazines. Have had 2 parcels go missing through Aus-post so would be such a blessing!

I’d love to send my sister in Vrede a gift to welcome my new baby nephew and to celebrate my other nephew’s birthday! I’ll send handwritten cards from their cousins plus a pair of baby Uggs for the little one and a pair of little Blundstone boots for the older one from their proud aunty. And if there’s space definitely some chocolatey Aussie goodness for the sleep-deprived mommy!

My Mum in Law is turning 90!!! And our family is having a BIG party for her without us 🙁
We would love to send her a lovely surprise as we know that will really make her day special
The gift will be filled with special goodies only a woman can love 🙂

As an often penniless student, it would be wonderful to have the means to send a small care package to my boyfriend, who is currently coping at life alone back in South Africa. Knowing how slow and unreliable SAPO is, I’d use the 2 kg Postbox Courier shipping voucher to send him a few handwritten letters (since words scribed down with ink on paper are indeed priceless all the more by being tangible), a small vial of miniature, vibrantly coloured shells I garnered whilst strolling down a beach in Port Macquarie, a few photos of the instant camera variety I’ve managed to make of a myriad of Australian oddities, some food items (how could I ever be forgiven for not sending along some comfort food? Haha!), as well as my intrinsically imbued sincerest hope to soon be reunited with him.

Thanks for this GREAT opportunity. I have a Down Syndrom Sister in South Africa who adores gifts and surprise packets. I now have the opportunity to send her goodies at an affordable price. I am so thankfull!

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About Me

I'm Reeva and on this blog, you’ll get practical advice about the many different aspects of migrating. I also talk about the emotional side of packing up and moving countries, and I love to share awesome places to go, fun things to do and exciting events to check out here in Australia and South Africa.